Abstract: In view of the debate on dual-process model of same-different comparison, three experiments adopting three different holistic and local features (relational-attribute, global-local, and abstract-concrete) were conducted to investigate the effects of holistic and local features on “same” judgment and “different” judgment and to explore the mechanism of same-different comparison from the viewpoint of holistic/analytical process. Results showed that: (a) Holistic features could significantly speed up “same” response, which suggested that IR did not run in a way of holistic matching; (b) “same” response was always faster than the slowest “different” response, but sometimes slower than the fastest “different” response, which indicated that the work of slow processor was not always following the end of IR; (c) “different” response time decreased with the increasing number of different features, which gave a further evidence that different judgment was an analytical self-terminate process; (d) “different” response time increased with the different feature changing from top to bottom and from global to local, which suggested that the sequence of different judgment might be from top to bottom and from global to local. All of the results supported the hypothesis that the IR of “same” judgment processed holistic features first, and then worked with the slow processor of “different” judgment together on local features.

Key words: same-different comparison, dual-process model, holistic process, fast-“same” effect